Blog

Summer Adventures: Technology

August 01, 2016

By Laurie Burckhardt, Middle School Teacher

With the extra time in your child’s schedule this summer, it’s the perfect opportunity to advance their computer skills. There is so much to learn when it comes to computers, and the more you know, the easier school work will be when they get back from summer vacation. Have them play games to improve their typing, then encourage them to build their own game using code!

Type Like the Wind

Practice typing on a regular basis. There are many free and low-cost programs offered online or for download. Being able to type quickly will cut down on homework time during the school year, so have your child invest those minutes now. You will be glad you did!

Learn to Speak Computer

Learning a coding language is also a very good idea for students in the 21st Century. Once your student has learned to type, put them to work making anything they can imagine. One big incentive when learning to code is that if they learn enough, they could make a game like the games they play everyday on their gadgets. There are so many organizations that offer classes, workshops, and camps to get more kids coding.

Bring Code to Life

Learning to code is fun and using code to control robots could be even cooler! You can make robots that roll, grab and even draw. There are plenty of easy starter kits out there to make it easy to build small robots at home. Once your child makes their robot, they can use their programming skills to bring it to life!

Make it Presentable

And don’t forget to use this time to organize and edit online portfolios, email and electronic documents. That way when your child heads back to school, they can easily show their teachers and classmates all about the things they learned over the summer!